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Thanks for that, now test with the shoulder out of the way...... your test proved only that the case will stop when it hits he shoulder. This is the express function of the shoulder on the bottlenecked cartridge It should work.

And you can't just measure bullet setback. You've got to remove the ejector/extractor and shim for headspace. See how far you drove the bullet into the lands.

primmer hole

Guys look at the photo of the primmer hole the primmer blew out and there was still enough powder burning to melt some of the case the neck had to have been pinched holding the slug; surprised it did not stick in the barrel with the loss of pressure, shell must have sealed to the bolt face. I would check for damage to the barrel you cram things in a plinking barrel no harm no foul (sort of) but for target 100 200 a little can make for trash

Here's something I've added to my bench routine. After firing my group and waiting for the cease fire I use a loaded round and check every fired case to make sure a bullet will go back in the case with some clearence. And yes I learned that the hard way, more than once as a matter of fact.

Dave, about 20% of my cases come out of the chamber with slightly oval neck openings. Of course, a fresh bullet won't go in them, but there is plenty of clearance. Sizing fixes everything. I believe all my long-range rifles have had that phenomena, including some of the first one's chambered up... ;-)

The destroyed case is long too.
The long brass was the problem. I don't know what his load is but I know he's using lapua brass now.
Ive been wanting to measure some new norma bras just to see where it was when he started but I don't have any.
I got lucky, he didn't use much torque on the barrel so I unscrewed the barrel to open the bolt.
I torqued the barrel back on at 100# and I have an external action wrench here to open it with if it happens again, these things seldom ever happen to the same guy twice.
Thanks to the quality of current manufactures actions and barrels no one got hurt.

Yes, it was a right right.
It was a Kelbly Panda.
When I read your post I immediately remembered listening to George Kelbly talking about the potential hazards of using a port on the same side as the shooter, if something bad happens you will probably get a face full of it. I know that didnt happen to the owner of this rifle, I guess the brass held up well enough to keep him from getting a powder burn.

There was probably some stuff came out but with the scope and his head on the opposite side he didn't get sprayed. Your face is actually in a safe zone depending on the size of the port. Hunting rifles are just about cut in half by the port but BR guns are for the most part slits pointed 90 degrees away from the shooter. Just big enough to let fat fingers in to pull cases out. I have examples of really big Oh s here in the shop and everybody walked away with nothing but a wrecked rifle and story to tell.